Last Thursday, Clare Conroy turned on her window air-conditioner for its inaugural run of the season.
A few hours later, she learned that her appliance, a U-shaped Midea unit that has exploded in popularity since it was introduced in 2020, had been recalled over a potential mold risk. The window units, which are gracefully rounded, have become the air-conditioner of choice for many design-conscious New Yorkers, partly because of their distinctive shape that allows the window to close and light to enter on either side of the unit.
Suddenly, the air-conditioner no longer sounded so chic. Ms. Conroy learned about the recall on Instagram, where the handyman who had installed her unit posted to alert his clients.
“He was like, ‘I know at least 50 of you have them because I installed them,’” Ms. Conroy, 39, said, laughing.
Ms. Conroy, an attorney who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said she had purchased the Midea U, which retails for $330 to $480, in 2021 on the recommendation of a friend. Ideally, window units are seasonal devices that are stored in a dry place during the colder months. Ms. Conroy lives in a one-bedroom apartment and, like many city dwellers, does not have the luxury of storage space.
When she disassembled her unit after the recall, Ms. Conroy said she found black spots she believed to be mold. She did her best to clean it thoroughly with bleach and paper towels, but said she had not decided what she would do long term.
She is one of many Midea owners who are now faced with that same decision.
Midea is offering customers the option to have their units refunded or repaired by one of the company’s technicians. (It has not specified a time frame in which those repairs would be completed, to the consternation of some customers.)
“We take this seriously and have been working closely with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to execute the recall and ensure that we empower consumers with the choice of a refund or a repair,” a spokesperson for Midea said in an email.
Especially enterprising A.C. owners can elect to repair their units themselves, using a free repair kit from the company “that includes a new drain plug and bubble level.” The company created two instructional videos to guide customers through the process of replacing the drain plug and cleaning the unit.
All of those options sound imperfect if you do not have central air conditioning as the summer heat approaches.
Tori Simokov, a writer who lives in Brooklyn, said in a direct message that she and her husband were unsure what they would do with their three Midea units, one of which “smells so bad.” The couple lives on the top floor of a walk-up building — another hurdle when considering replacement units.
The sleek appliance has become something of a status symbol in New York, where many coveted prewar apartments do not have central air-conditioning.
In an interview with The New York Times last year, Rodrigo Teixeira, the head of product management for home comfort at Midea America, said the product had been designed to fill a gap in the market for attractive, effective window units. “You see million-dollar homes, or $2 million apartments these days with window units sticking to the window,” he said.
The product received positive reviews from product recommendation sites including Consumer Reports, The Strategist and The New York Times’s Wirecutter. The unit is quieter than most, and allows its owner to open and close the window without needing to remove the A.C.
Katie Whitaker, the founder of the New York-based home repair service Handyma’am, estimated they had installed at least 100 Mideas in recent years, noting the higher price point meant the devices were popular in more affluent neighborhoods. The Midea is part of a recent class of aesthetically minded air-conditioners that includes the brands July and Windmill, which have also taken off with customers.
“When all of these brands started hitting the market, I started noticing a popular Midea unit and I was like, ‘I’ve never heard of them,’” said Whitaker, 37. “Somebody on their marketing department deserved a raise because we started getting requests for these things left and right.”
That changed last week. A product recall notice posted to the company’s website listed several model numbers of the company’s air-conditioners, with a worrisome warning: “Consumers who have one of the listed models should participate in the recall immediately.”
The problem, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, is that water could be pooling inside the air-conditioners instead of draining. (1.7 million of the units are being recalled in the United States, according to the agency.) Any window unit can become moldy, because of the condensation that is produced when warm air cools. But moldy air-conditioners may carry respiratory health risks for those who use them.
Allen St. John, a senior home and tech writer who has worked on Consumer Reports’ air-conditioner rankings, said it was “unusual” for Midea to offer a refund option to customers for an appliance of this kind. “Our advice, as with all health-and-safety related recalls, is to take the recall seriously,” he said in an email.
He urged owners of Midea’s U-shaped units to stop using the devices, and to either submit for a refund or have the unit repaired by an air-conditioner technician. Those who do pursue the D.I.Y. repair option should be careful to ensure that the drain plug is properly installed.
On social media, many Midea owners have begun voicing anxieties about what they should do next. On TikTok, sweltering customers including Allison Davis, 26, who lives in Brooklyn, debated whether they should crank up their Midea A.C.s anyway. (Mr. St. John advises against it.) Others pointed out the unfortunate timing that their units were being recalled just as the weather was heating up in much of the Northeast.
Angry comments from customers poured in on Midea’s Instagram page, where the company had posted the recall notice and a phone number for a help line. Many wrote that they had not yet been able to get through to the company to schedule the recommended repairs.
“The recall just launched, and due to the high volume of interest, wait times at the recall contact center are unfortunately longer than expected right now,” the company wrote in response to one customer.
Katie Whitaker, the handyperson in New York, cautioned Midea owners against panic on Instagram. While mold is a serious issue that should be remedied, it is quite common in almost all window units over time.
“When was the last time that you cleaned your air-conditioner?” they asked in a video.
